Project Run and Play Week 2 Sportswear Challenge

For spring break, last month, the kids and I went down to Florida with Grandma, Grandpa Bill, Aunt Becky, and cousins.  During this trip Delsin found this abandoned, very cool, boogie board with a picture of a shark on it.  (seen below)  He begged me to figure out a way to bring it back home for him, and I said I would.  

This boogie board, coupled with the fact that Delsin is all about "swim team" for the summer is where I got my inspiration from for this week's challenge.

I knew I wanted to do something around swimming for the sportswear challenge.  I was heavily leaning toward making swimming trunks with some fabric I took off of a broken beach chair while on that same trip, but ultimately I know that Delsin won't get a lot of use out of another pair of swim trunks.  He's got plenty of swimming trunks already and I know that he'll always choose his Batman swimming trunks over my up-cycled beach chair, so I think I'll save that fabric for next week's challenge.  But I know he's going to want something to cover up with that looks cool, when he's done with his swim meets and so I decided to make him a warm up suit that he'll love.  I hope the judges for Project Run and Play like it as much as he does.

Whenever I do Project Run and Play I like to keep two things in mind: 1. Make something I would have already planned to make and 2. Use fabric I already have on hand, if possible.

So I started trying to think of what colors Delsin would like his warm up suit to be in.  School colored outfits are always the most popular outfits in our hometown and Delsin is always asking for more than what he has, so I decided to go with purple and gold (or yellow as it really is).  I have plenty of purple knit, but no yellow knit.  I plenty of both in satin and know that the backside of this satin is the perfect feel of the type of lightweight fabric I would want to use, anyway.  This will be great for keeping the breezes off of his wet skin without making him hot on summer nights.  So I made the outfit using the back side of the purple satin.  I used the front side of the yellow satin to give a little pop.  I wanted to be sure to add Delsin's initials because we all love personalized articles of clothing around here and it adds a nice little special touch. 

I wanted to be sure the top was a pull-over with the neck opening large enough for his head to fit through, so I made it a v-neck.  I wanted to put elastic in the cuff of the sleeves and the waist of the shirt.  Adding striping to the sleeves and pants gave it a sporty look.  But our favorite feature is the unexpected shark.  First, there is a bite in his side, as to indicate that he has been bitten by a shark.  Then I made sure the shark hung around by clamping on to his rear-end.  We got a kick out of this.  And it goes perfectly with his love of sharks too.

The pants are large enough to fit comfortably over his swimming trunks without any restrictions.  

He was so happy about his outfit that he wore it to school today.  

That's a good day.